


Coming Out

by The_Magic_Lava_Lamp



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 22:22:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16049762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Magic_Lava_Lamp/pseuds/The_Magic_Lava_Lamp
Summary: Nothing seemed to be going according to Eddie's plan. His Coming Out was no exception.





	Coming Out

Eddie had known there was something that was different about him ever since the day that Beverly had sunbathed in front of them, clad in her underwear. And what popped into his mind, as he stared was ‘I wonder what we’re having for dinner tonight?’ As he looked around at his friends, it occurred to him that they we’rent thinking the same thing. No, their batting eyes, sharp intakes of breath, and parted mouths told otherwise. So Eddie tried to keep staring, just to make sure he hadn’t missed something. But Beverly started to turn her head and his time was up. He was immediately flustered and snapped his head back around like he was burned. 

Though there had been no time at all to put himself under the microscope to figure out what exactly that meant. Because being chased by a disgusting demon clown didn’t offer up much free time. Not that he thought the thirteen year old version of himself would be able to figure it out. The sixteen year old version of himself could barely figure it out. He had to bite his tongue last week in the theater to keep himself from audibly fawning over Indiana Jones.

He thought about telling his friends one by one, maybe at least starting with Beverly but that would mean he’d have to go through the process more than once. So he was planing to just to get it over with and tell all of them at once. He was thinking this all over while he sat in Bill’s passenger seat, his friends all packed in the back. And he wasn’t quite sure why but his thoughts were interrupted with what sounded like his mothers oven timer going off in his head. saying ‘It’s time! It’s time!’ “I have something to tell you guys!” He shouted, impulsively. He knew that he had no time to back out when the whole car quieted, even Richie shut up for him. 

Eddie played with his fingers in his lap and tried to think of something he could use as an excuse. “I…well I just wanted to say-” 

The radio let it’s last song fade out, the previously soft tone was replaced with it’s bursting new song choice. “I’m Coming Out!” Chimed the radio in Diana Ross’s voice. The car went silent. Eddie took the leap, knowing this way he wouldn’t have to actually say it. 

“That! I wanted to say that!” He pointed his finger at the radio like a child. He felt everyone’s confused eyes and was not looking forward to having to actually explaining himself. But before he could open his mouth, Beverly started. 

“That….you’re coming out?” she asked, a small smile starting at the corner of her lips. Eddie could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet. So he just nodded…..profusely. And suddenly, it was ok to laugh because that’s what everyone did, apart from Eddie who was sure they were laughing at him. 

He was wondering if he could make the jump if he just opened the door and barreled out and was debating if the injuries were worth it, when Bill slapped his hand down on his back as the car rolled to a stop. “It’s o-o-ok Eddie. This doesn’t c-c-change anything. We still love you.” 

Eddie breathed a little sigh of relief and nodded. “So you love me anyway?” He voiced his paranoia one more time. Everyone’s faces seemed to look concerned before Ben decided to speak up. 

“We don’t love you anyway, Eddie. We just love you.” 

Eddie was touched and bit into his lip as he gave Ben an appreciative smile. The car went silent again until…

“Damn, we’re such sentimental bastards.” Richie chuckled and everyone promptly slapped him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming out had most definitely agreed with Eddie. And it was pretty obvious, in more ways then one. There was the good. Which included, Eddie being a lot less mousy and skittish as he’d been in the last few months. The boy was practically glowing. He’d even let Beverly paint his nails, a creamy citrus orange color that was easily removed. It was easily one of Eddie’s favorite memories and he knew it before it was even over. 

~~~~~~~~

Beverly capped the polish and leaned back on the tree next to Richie as Eddie examined his nails. He glanced up at Richie, looking close to apologetic. “Sorry, Rich. That was a pretty gay hour we spent.” Eddie was still getting use to being out. And for some reason, he was still apologizing for it. 

“I can think of a much better way to spend a gay hour with you, Eds.” Richie smirked suggestively, crawling over. Eddie rolled his eyes and put his entire hand over Richie’s face and pushed him backwards with laughter. 

~~~~~~~~

Eddie smiled at the memory. But the obviousness of the situation was not only a good thing. There was a bad side that almost made Eddie regret even coming out. Everyone in the school seemed to just know too. He wasn’t sure how but he was sure it was not in the school syllabus that was sent home. No, he didn’t think that right by the parents signature the flyer read ‘And by the way, Eddie Kaspbrak’s gay!’ But it almost seemed plausible the more he thought about it. 

He scratched under his chin and tried to focus on his science project and not the fact that his partner was inching farther and farther away from him. He tapped his pencil before glancing at him, his name was Trevor. And he was biting on the eraser of his pencil, Eddie cringed as he thought of all the germs he was biting into. And maybe Trevor mistook his cringe as a look of interest, though Eddie wasn’t sure why…maybe he was just paranoid like all the other boys were around Eddie. 

He quickly pulled the pencil end from his mouth like it burnt him and glared at him. Eddie bit so hard into his cheek, it drew blood. He glanced up at the clock and tried not to let it get to him. He shouldn’t care what his frickin’ lab partner thought about him, but he did. And it hurt. He broke his pencil in half, the wood stuck out and snapped. “Shit.” He whispered and hopped out of his seat, taking note of the fact that Trevor moved to the side as he breezed past him. 

He marched himself to the bathroom, after asking of course. He slapped his hands on the heavy door, it swung open and slammed against the wall. Thankfully, no one was inside the blue and gold tiled shit hole. He gripped onto the cool sides of the sink and sighed. He mentally went through every occurrence within the past few weeks where some guy had purposefully hopped away from him. It was like they thought it was fuckin’ contagious or something. Eddie glanced up, taking in his appearance in the mirror. He spent too fucking long convinced he was sick, he wasn’t going to be made to feel like shit about this. 

He took another deep breath and marched back out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So I said to him- I says-” Richie starts out his story in some sort of greaser voice that Eddie had been known to call ‘A knock off Danny Zucko speaking during a trip through a blender’. Eddie chuckled. Richie proceeded to throw his arm around Eddie’s shoulder without a blink of his eye.

Richie had always been the touchy type but Eddie had convinced himself that when he came out, Richie might stop doing things he used to do. That’s just what happened, right? All the boys in school gave him dirty looks and moved away from him. But his friends, the Losers club, didn’t change one bit. Stan still corrected Eddie’s body to show him how to crack the baseball the best, Bill still gave him piggy-back rides, Mike still gave him boosts to reach high places, Ben still sat close to him when they studied and Richie still pinched his cheeks. Eddie had never been more thankful for that in his life. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other people though, were not as thankful. In fact, they looked at Richie like the boy had gone nuts. Every time he put his arms around him or set his chin on Eddie’s head or squished Eddie’s cheeks, nearby students seemed to try and give him a silent signal. One that read ‘Watch out, He’s gay!’ but Richie never seemed to be looking back. 

So it was up to them to formulate a plan to warn Richie. Before it was too late. In Mrs. Roshner’s history class, a group of students voted Skippy Peterson as the chosen one. He was the one who supplied Richie with smokes in the bathroom during the day anyway. 

When Richie took off to wait for him, Skippy was pushed out of his seat and excused for the bathroom. He tapped his pocket, whistling as he slapped the door open to find Richie sitting on the edge of the sink. 

“Ah! Skippy my boy! Skipping class, huh?” Richie chuckled at the bad joke before gesturing for him to come over. Skippy shook his head and handed him a cigarette. He flicked the lighter in his hand and a reflection of red filled his eyes. 

“You’re close to the Kaspbrak guy, right?” Skippy asked, a little nervous when Richie gave him a heated look, breathing out smoke. 

“Yeah.” 

“Y’know…he’s gay right? Aren’t you worried he’ll think you’re flirting with him? What if he thinks he has a shot with you?” Skippy was fidgeting now as he was getting more and more curious and worried, on Richie’s behalf. Richie, shoved his lighter back into his pocket and looked Skippy up and down. 

“I sure hope he does. I’ve been flirting with him since we were like six. He could’ve had me back then. We could’ve been holding hands at recess if he wanted.” and then he spun out the door, leaving Skippy feeling dumb. 

Skippy watched the door close as he tried to wrap his brain around that. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Richie hopped happily out of the bathroom and smoked down the halls like it was no big deal. He rolled it to the other side of his mouth and felt the warmth in his chest as he bounded towards his favorite place in the entire school to linger. But as he approached, there was a tall figure standing at Eddie’s locker, fidgeting a little. 

He stopped and leaned on the wall behind him as the bell rang overhead and people poured from the classrooms. Eddie’s tiny little figure came bopping from his nearby class towards his locker and that boy. Richie scooted to the best position so he could hear them but they couldn’t see him. 

“Hey, Eddie right? I saw you with your friends the other day but I was a little nervous to talk to you then.” The boy was shuffling on his feet and stroking his own hair like it would improve his looks. Richie rolled his eyes.

“Why would you be nervous Connor? I have those notes you wanted in my locker, if you would’ve asked I would’ve given em’ to you.” Eddie shrugged as he opened his locker. 

‘Ahhh, so Connor was the boy band member knock off’s name’. Richie scowled. ‘And my oh my was his boy oblivious’. 

Eddie stood on his tiptoes and Connor decided it was the best time to drag his eyes up and down him, a twinkle in his eyes. And Richie wanted nothing more than to knock the twinkle right out. So he bounded over and threw his arm around the smaller boys shoulders. “How ya doin’ Eds?” He ruffled his hair and gave Connor his best ‘back off’ glare. Though, Beverly once told him that she could kick his ass at that. 

“Don’t call me that- Oh here you go, Connor.” Eddie handed him the notes and he looked like he might say something else to Eddie but then took another glance at Richie and decided against. Eddie pretended that Richie’s hands roaming on his ticklish sides were irritating, but he flourished at the attention. 

Connor gripped the notes and took off. “Huh, wonder where he’s going so fast?” Eddie frowned and held his books to his chest. Richie put his chin to rest on Eddie’s head and hummed. 

“Probably off to flirt with all the other boys.” He felt Eddie try and look up at him, his hair tickled under his chin. 

“He was not flirting with me.” Eddie furrowed his brows, that cute wrinkle forming on his forehead. Richie put on a smug smile and leaned on a neighboring locker. 

“Please, He had his eyes all over you, Eds. His flirting isn’t as good as mine though, Right?” Richie stuck his nose in the air. Eddie gave him a confused look.

“How would I know?” Eddie crinkled his nose, Richie sighed. 

“Because I’m always flirting with you…..is this not as clear as I thought?” Richie asked in exasperation. Eddie’s eyes widened and he started to chuckle awkwardly, trying to pass the moment by as one of Richie’s weird comments.

“Do you have the psych notes cause I left mine-?” 

“Eddie.” Richie interrupted him with an expectant thin lipped smile, Eddie clamped his mouth shut and looked at him. “I’m not joking.” Richie put it simply and Eddie nearly just dropped his books and ran. 

“Ok, you flirt with me but it’s just what you do I know you don’t mean it” Eddie ran his fingers down the sleeve of his sweater. Richie pursed his lips and shook his head. 

“Oh no, I mean it. I always have. Even when we were six and I pushed my block tower on you….do you remember that? Because that was hysterical, I think that’s why you didn’t talk to me again until we were ten-” 

“What are you saying, Richie?” Eddie interrupted him with urgency and Richie felt heat crawl up his neck and hit his cheeks. 

“I’m saying…we’re great friends but if you asked me to make out with you, I would.” Richie shrugged, explaining it in a way that only he could. Eddie took a breath and bit into his cheek.

“Huh.” 

“Huh? That’s all I get, Eds? Be a little more creative than that. Y’know? a ‘fuck off, Richie’ or a ‘Shut up Trashmouth’ are some gems-” 

“Richie!” 

Richie hopped back slightly, not expecting Eddie to shout. He tilted his head and waited for him to say something. “Give me time to have this sink in, ok?” Eddie said with a breathy sigh. Richie nodded. 

“Sure, take your time. I can stay away from you for a bit if you want. Give you some space-”

“It sunk!” Eddie shouted again and hopped up to Richie, hands boosting himself up from Richie’s shoulders. Their lips met for a few seconds, the best few seconds of Richie’s life. 

“You adorable little bastard.” Richie scrunched up his face as Eddie kept on giggling.


End file.
